New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-07-20
A Fourth Of July Grafton.

Will SSlCSaG 4CdI0 Ny Ml. II. A. 0uUl1lft
As sickness prevented Mr.. S. from de
livering the same we publish it by spe
cial request.
FeLIOaU Citizens!
The better to refresh our memory
and impress upon our mind the great
boon which the Declaration of hide
pendence gave to the American people
i in particular and to all mankind in gen
eral, it will be necessary to review in
a concise manner the causes which
brought on this memorable event; men
| ton the name of some of the partiots,
| who by their ardent love of liberty, their
ardent hate for all that is tyrannical
and wrong, have by words, pen and
deed aroused the people to understand
their rights, and to secure those rights,
have pledged their Life, their fortune
and sacred honor; it is also well and
proper to remember that in this glorious
day we celebrate those great able men,
who by their intiexible fidelity in carry
ing out the trust confded to them, their
immense sacrifice. hardship and endur-
ance. secured to us and to our
posterity the benefits Of that glorious
Declaration of independence and gave
us Freedom and Liberty and released
us from oppression and tyranny. After
having done Justice to the sacred mem
ory OF those men, whose integrity could
not be shaken by the vicissitudes of war,
it devolves upon us to consider our duty
towards maintaining the Liberty gained
to us by the blood and life of untold he
roes, and our duty to keep well-guard-
ed eur republican institutions and de-
liver the same to our descendants,
strong and imperishable; this duty
fulfilled, we may devote the rest of this
day to mirth and enjoyment as free men
in the full sense of the word, not only
free from political and fanatical OPP
preston, but free from any impure pas
sion.
That part of America running along
the western shore of the Atlantic, was
first settled by immigration, mostly
Rfrom England, and known as colonies,
which derived their right to settle on
this continent by charter issued by the
King of England claiming the land by
right of discovery. -The first Colonies
were Virginia. Massachusetts, New
York, Connecticut, Rhode Island. New
Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, North and South
Carolina and Georgia. These Colonies
were arbitrarily governed by Cover
nor appointed by the King of England;
when in the course of time these colo
MES grew large in population and Of
great strength, they denied to Great
Britain the right to govern them arbi-
trarily; and the more Immediate cause
of the revolution which gave birth to
the Declaration of independence and
separation from the mother country,
was the passage by Parliament of a
number of acts destructive of colonial
liberty. These acts were resisted by the
colonies, and the attempt was made by
Crest Britain to enforce them with the
bayonet. The subject OF that unjust
legislation was the question of taxa
ton. The American colonists claimed
the full rigat of Englishmen, which was
denied them by the mother country.
Another cause of the conflict with
England was found in the personal char
acter of King George III, who assembled
the throne in 1850: he was one of the
worst monarchs of modern times. His
notions OF government were altogether
despotic; he was stubborn, stupid,
thick headed man in whose mind the
notion of human rights was entirely
wanting; it was impossible for him to
conceive nagnanimous project or to
appreciate the value of civil liberty. In
IL 80 Q,.stSch
he employed only those who where the
narrow-minded partisans OF his own
policy. The ministers were, for the
most part, men as incompetent and IL
liberal as himself; with such king and
such ministry it was not likely that the
descendants of the Pilgrims would go on
smoothly. These, with many others too
numerous to mention here, where the
causes of the Revolution and subsequent
Declaration Of Independence of 1776;
here it is well to mention the names Of
John Adams, James Otis and Patrick
Henry, who pleaded eloquently for colo.
NAL rights and denounced the parlia.
mentary acts as unconstitutional.
When Great Britain attempted to
enforce the Acts of Parliament by the
bayonet, the Is colonies resisted, and
from the early spring of 1775 until July
1776 the colonies were in open revolt
and in war with the mother country; but
George LII was going to que1 his revolt
ed provinces by turning loose upon them
: brutal foreign soldiery; this greatly
exasperated the Americans. who until
then had constantly claimed to be loyal
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